Things said by or about Marlon Shakespeare
Matt Smith: "No matter where he is, as a reader you're always cheering him on in every story, a bright light of independence and defiance in an otherwise grim future." Introduction to Chopper, volume 29 of Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection. ---- Richard Burton: "Chopper remains one of my favourites of all the Dredd supporting characters. He is a free spirit in a structured, regimented world. I vividly recall, not long after this story Graffiti', a rash of real Chopper graffiti appeared around London — even in the train I took to work each morning! I remember feeling both elated and disturbed at the influence 2000 AD was having on society." Judge Dredd: The Mega-History. ---- Jake Lynch: "As a child, that final panel reveal when we learn that the Midnight Surfer is Chopper had me dancing with joy. It wasn't only the standout art and storytelling, it was the recognition. I got it, I knew who that was — I was in the club!" 2000 AD prog 2061. ---- Narrator: "The wind whips against him. The board seems alive beneath his feet. Once more the skies belong to THE MIDNIGHT SURFER. A few late night bat gliders circle on the thermals that rise between the city's giant housing blocks. An occasional hoverbus glides by like some great ocean liner of old. Otherwise, he is alone. A creature of the night skies, at one with his board. He digs his heel hard into the throttle pad — and goes into a series of breathtaking loops and spirals — a warm-up routine far beyond the scope of any but the most gifted power boarder." 2000 AD prog 424. ---- Narrator: "Trouble with the law is nothing new to him. They'd locked him away, tried to beat him down, break his spirit — turn him into a nobody like everyone else in this soul-crushing city. But they couldn't break Chopper — and now this is his day." 2000 AD prog 427. ---- Yogi Yakamoto: "You the best, boy. Nobody ever do what you do. You... King Surfer..." 2000 AD prog 429. ---- Narrator: "Only surfing has kept him sane. It has been many things to Marlon Shakespeare — a supreme joy... a means of expressing himself, of being someone... a symbol of his rebellion against the society he hates so much." 2000 AD prog 545. ---- Dredd: "I had plenty time to make the shot. But I didn't. Even now I don't know whether I could have... I don't know why... I guess I admired him. The kid had class... Seemed to me he deserved better than a bullet in the back." 2000 AD prog 572. ---- Smokie: "Don' know why I bother with you! Waste my time! Never learn! Always be city boy, useless city boy!" 2000 AD prog 654. ---- Chopper: "Smokie said I'm just following the songlines. I don't know it, but that's what I'm doing." Charlene: "The songlines... I heard of them. They're... sort of dream tracks — ancient trails of song left by the Aboriginal ancestors..." Chopper: "Something like that. I don't really understand it that much... He said that each one of us is descended from a particular ancestor, each of us has our own ‘dreaming’... that's what he called it. Smokie had a wombat dreaming. That meant that he belonged to the wombat ancestor, and the songlines were his link with his past, with the earth itself... But the ancestors didn't have to be animals — they could be rivers or rocks or trees — anything. He said I had a wind dreaming." Charlene: "Wind dreaming... like... a child of the wind. That's nice." 2000 AD prog 655. ---- Tony (commentator): "Out of 39 surfers who started this race the statistics read: dead — 31... seriously injured — 3... withdrawn — 4! Now only one remains — one man who I think today has justly earned the right to call himself the greatest skysurfer who has ever lived!" 2000 AD prog 665. ---- Partygoer: "'Ere, you used ter be Chopper, dintcha?" Chopper: "Still am. Or thought I was. Maybe I'm not." 2000 AD prog 1389. ---- First bystander: "It's Chopper!" Second bystander: "Look at him go!" Third bystander: "He can still make that board whistle!" 2000 AD prog 1392. ---- Dredd (thinking): "When did money ever matter to Marlon Shakespeare?" 2000 AD prog 1393. ---- Jimmie Zeen, a disaffected juve (narrating): "He's sitting in some studio in Oz. Smiling at footage of when he mattered. He's trying to look like he's happy, like he's found some peace. Like he's grown out of it too. But underneath, there's that look in his eye — that look that dults get. That look that says: Something happened to me. Something went missing and and I don't know what it was. I used to be a hero. And now I'm a stinkin' dult." Judge Dredd Megazine #302. Category:Quotes